Archives

We’re robbed and federal competition agency is silent

Gasoline is available today in Bellingham at US$3.05 a gallon. That is equivalent to C$1.04 a litre.

Sunday, gas reached C$1.60 in Vancouver, or $1.52 before GST.

BC gas taxes are 33¢ a litre in the lower mainland. In Bellingham, they are 18¢ a litre, which is 23¢ Canadian.

So, removing the impact of gas tax and GST, our American neighbours pay as much as 38¢ a litre less. That amounts to $23 for a 60-litre fill-up.

Based on average consumption, we suffer about $1,000 a year in excess charges for each vehicle. At the gas pumps, BC’s contribution to a more profitable oil industry exceeds $3 billion annually. It appears that collusion and lack of competition are main factors.

The Canadian government has a Competition Bureau, but it pays little attention to British Columbia. If you wish to complain, this is their contact page. They publish no email address and might prefer you communicate with them by carrier pigeon.

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

I have been saying this for years, total ripoff, I live in Tsawwassen so never buy my gas in Canada. You would have thought if Big Oil wants to push through Trans Mountain, they would lower the price and make people happy,and be less angry about big oil, instead they want to rip us off for as much as possible and instead make me more angry at them. No, there is no shortage of gas for the lower mainland, its just a large lie, to make the sheep think that if the pipe line was built they would lower the price,, which anyone with a half a brain knows that is completley untrue.

Interesting that when it looked like grocery stores hiked bread prices a bit, all hell breaks loose and the stores were forced to cough up $ to consumers. But when all the gas stations raise prices simultaneously…

Having owned a gas station in Langley for over 20 years. We often fought with the big oil/gas companies to stop rigging the “rack rate”‘(buyer’s cost) so that we could obtain a fairer rate and then offer our customers a better price. Even our oil wholesale price was more expensive than we paid at our local London Drugs. The big corporate big-wigs just stack the prices and match each other so there is no fair competition. We then switched our brand to a local brand and could offer a bit of a better price. After two decades, We ended up closing the gas station and repurposed our land to become a strip mall with a two keystone restaurants as our leasees.
I too buy my gas in USA now.

This spring and summer, I’ll be in Abbotsford in the evenings once a week, a time when crossing the border at Sumas can be as quick as a one-car wait. After exchange, I’m paying $1.07 per litre for regular fuel. At least one Sumas station gives 80¢ U.S. per Canadian dollar. It’s about an 8 km detour from Abbotsford, which I’m glad to do if the price difference is so big and the wait is bearable.

Notably, the price per gallon varies up and down the main drag, Cherry Street. Not something you see in the Lower Mainland.

I’ve been carrying a Gerry can or two each time and as a result have only spent about $10 on Canadian fuel since March. Apparently Canadian border agents COULD charge taxes on the portable gasoline but they haven’t tagged me yet.

I’m doing my part to leave more fuel for Lower Mainlanders who can’t get easily get across the border to buy the fuel before it is trucked into Canada — and I encourage others to do the same.

One would think that with the power of the much vaulted social media some enterprising soul would organise a boycott of one brand of fuel for a week say around the May 21st weekend and than watch how fast the price would come down.
It will take only one of these thieving bastards to break and run and than their house of cards would crumble.
The consumer is king and if our pussy Canadian drivers would band together for once the gouging would change really fast.

As I understand it, Kinder Morgan will more than double it’s toll on the product that is being piped from Alberta to the West Coast. I wonder how much of that oil is pumped to the U.S. refineries in Wash. State through the branch line that splits at Sumas (between Abbotsford and Chilliwack)?

Wasting money on destructive energy projects makes zero sense when there are better alternatives. British Columbia is spending billions on Site C. It could suspend the project today and have less harmful and cheaper sources of clean power operational by the time more electricity is needed.

As is typical of resource management, the regulating ministry sees its prime purpose is to enhance growth and profitability of companies extracting resources. the public share of produced values is no longer material. This cozy relationship costs taxpayers billions of dollars, money that could be spent on renewable energy, transit, daycare, education or many […]

Canada’s Conservatives are committed to the Republican Party value of opposing voter fraud, if someone else is doing it. Like their American mentors, HarperCons protest electoral manipulations even more strongly when no one is doing it. Bill C-76 amends the Canada Elections Act to establish spending limits for third parties and political parties before of a […]

Freelance reporter Bob Mackin wrote that BC’s Legislature was a scandal waiting to happen and he quoted journalism professor and former Legislative reporter Sean Holman about the significant potential for abuse. Mackin blames excessive secrecy and lack of transparency...

BC Hydro's quarterly report for the period ended September 30, 2018 shows the utility is very good at some things. Specifically, borrowing and spending money. In the thirteen years from 2005, assets employed to service BC consumers have almost tripled in value. Trouble is, actual sales to residential, commercial and industrial consumers are less in 2018 […]

The case is clear. British Columbia's Government decided to reduce the public share of natural gas revenues to almost nothing. This is despite substantial growth in the quantities of natural gas being extracted.

Perhaps an even more vile set of falsehoods is BC Hydro's continuing claims that demand for electricity by its BC consumers has been growing steadily. That has led to excessive capital spending that measures in the billions.

Check out the fine work on electoral reform by Merv Adey 2018 fellowship recipient Andrew Seal. It’s a fabulous five part series published by The Tyee. We’d like to raise additional funds to initiate the next fellowship. You can be sure it will support a comprehensive examination of a subject important to all British Columbians.